1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an engine support bracket connected to an engine mount of a vehicle. More particularly, it relates to an engine support bracket mounted in a four-wheel drive vehicle together with a front differential and a front differential shaft.
2. Description of Related Art
An engine mounted in a vehicle generates considerable vibrations due to periodic changes in the position of the center by the up and down movement of a piston and a connecting rod, due to inertia of reciprocating parts generated in the axial direction of a cylinder, due to periodic changes in torque applied to a crank shaft by the connecting rod, etc. In order to reduce the vibration of the engine, an engine mount system is provided in the vehicle.
Moreover, an engine support bracket for connecting a power train as a vibration source and an engine mount as a vibration insulator is provided in the engine mount system.
Meanwhile, a four-wheel drive system in a front engine rear drive (FR) vehicle is very disadvantageous in terms of layout due to various components added for the four-wheel drive. In particular, in the FR vehicle equipped with the four-wheel drive system, it is necessary to distribute the driving force to a front side so as to drive the front wheels and, to this end, a front differential and a front differential shaft are provided in the vehicle.
However, since the front differential and the front differential shaft are located in the same position as the engine mount, the front differential and the front differential shaft are mounted in the vehicle after the engine mount is moved to the left and right so as to avoid interference between the respective parts.
FIG. 1 shows a structure in which a front differential 10, a front propeller shaft 20, and an engine mount are provided together, and FIG. 2 shows a comparison between an engine support bracket in a conventional two-wheel drive system and an engine support bracket in a four-wheel drive system.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional problem that installation positions of the respective parts overlap each other is solved by extending the length of an engine support bracket 50 for connecting an engine 60 and an engine mount 40 and mounting the engine support bracket 50 after moving the engine mount 40, whose position can be easily adjusted, to the left and right, thereby avoiding interference between the parts.
In this regard, referring to FIG. 2, in the conventional four-wheel drive system, the engine support bracket 50 is configured to form a connecting point between the engine support bracket 50 and the engine mount while avoiding interference with the front differential 10, which results in an increase in the length of the engine support bracket 50.
Accordingly, in the case of the conventional engine mount system, the engine mount 40 extends to the left and right, and thus the length of the engine support bracket 50 increases. As a result, the dynamic stiffness of the engine support bracket 50 is reduced, which affects the transmission sound during driving at high speed.
Therefore, in a state where the length of the engine support bracket is inevitably increased to avoid the interference between the parts, an engine mount system with a new structure for improving the dynamic stiffness is required.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.